Workplace Romance
by Greenx91
Summary: After a night in the office together, Apollo and Athena leave and go into the elevator. On the way out, Athena trips and lands on top of Apollo. Now the two are having strange thoughts about the other. This is so unprofessional. Note: Minor spoilers, nothing huge
1. Chapter 1

Ever since that trial, the two of them believed in each other to the fullest. They referred to each other as a true friend and never doubted the other's guilt. They were happy with what they had. They were happy, that is, until one night at the office when an accident forever changed how they looked at each other.

* * *

Phoenix and Trucy were at the door, awaiting impatiently for the other colors of their office.

"Come on, Apollo," Trucy said with her eyes half closed. After practicing her magic for hours, her high spirits was exhausted and clearly needed replenishing. "Can't you finish writing in your diary at your apartment?"

"It's not a diary," Apollo said. "It's my case journal where I write my cases down and-"

"Talk about how great you were, yeah, yeah." Trucy yawned and looked at her father besides her. "Can't you give Polly, the keys tonight, Daddy?"

Phoenix saw her on the verge of falling down to sleep and agreed. "If Apollo is so intent on writing his stories here, I guess I don't have a choice. The keys will be on the couch, Apollo. Remember to lock up."

"Will do."

Father and daughter left, leaving Apollo alone in the office. Admittedly, Apollo could have written down his experiences on and off the court at his home, but he felt the memories of the case stayed more alive and fresh when sitting at the office.

Apollo sighed and sharpened his pencil. "Looks like I'm still not half-way done. I haven't even gotten to the part where I discover the victim had a twin."

"You also need to remember when I threw you over that fence!"

"Hm?" Apollo looked over to the door and found his junior partner, Athena, entering the office with a notebook in hand. "Athena, I thought you left home already."

She smirked and said, "Not a chance! I went and got my own notebook so I can start writing my cases down too! I can't let you be ahead of the game, Apollo."

"Ahead of the game?" he said, confused at what she meant.

Athena sat down at her desk and opened her notebook. "You're improving yourself by writing down all of your cases so you can analyze certain patterns present throughout multiple cases, aren't you."

He actually wrote them in the hopes of publishing one day. He wasn't an analytical man. He might have to change that.

"That's what I'm going to do," he said. "I even stayed at the office to better remember the episodic memories that took place here."

He wasn't sure if he used the term "episodic memories" correctly. He heard her talk about it once, a few months back, and she made sense. To his silent joy, he also made sense. Athena looked shocked to hear Apollo use a psychology term.

"Huh? Really?" Athena looked over to his notebook. "You must really put some thought into it. Nice Apollo! I'm impressed."

Apollo smiled at her compliment. It was nice to hear his junior partner praise him.

"Oh well," she said. "A tougher competition is more satisfying anyway! I've written dozens of essays on human behavior, so I think I'm better equipped for this than you are, Apollo. Don't try too hard."

His smile faded and he sighed. "It always has to be a competition."

"What does that mean?" she asked flatly. "Besides, competition brings out the best in us. It's what makes athletes give world-breaking performances and intellectuals like us the spirits to live another day!"

"Does racing to the end of the street do either?"

"Sometimes, investigating gets boring," she quietly said.

They both stopped talking and focused on writing their stories.

* * *

About an hour passed since Athena began writing. In that time, she finished writing about her first cases with Apollo and Phoenix. She took a small break before writing again. A gush of excitement came over her as she was going to start writing about her first case. A sentence was written before she stopped.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

Apollo was standing by his desk, holding onto his notebook. "Well, I have to do a few last minute things first, but yes, I'm leaving."

She frowned and looked nervously at the clock.

Apollo noticed her uneasiness and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"N-no, no. Nothing wrong. I'm just grimacing on the fact that I'm going to spend hours here alone."

"You know, you don't have to write about everything at once. Eh, slow and steady wins the race, right?"

He added that last line in the hopes it would speak to her competitive nature.

"That's a lie and you know it!" she shouted. She then relaxed and calmed down. "But you're right. I shouldn't do them all at once. At least stay with me until I finish 'The Case of the Nutty Professor'."

Apollo blinked twice before he understood what she was talking about.

"Athena...are you naming these cases?"

"Like a bad courtroom drama."

* * *

He stuck around for another 70 minutes, the time it took her to finish.

"-and done!"

"Congratulations," he said. "You finished writing about your first case."

"I Sure did! Even in writing, the rush of catching that creep framing Junie was sweet!"

"I hope you also wrote down your worst moments too. You can't improve if you leave out the rough patches."

"I did," she said. "Er, at least the moments I remember. In any case, I'm happy you and everyone else helped me when I needed it."

"It's fine," he said in a modest tone. "We all need help sometimes. Even Mr. Wright asks for your help from time to time."

"Hm, yeah, but only for my mood matrix," she said. "His bluffs go beyond unbelievable and into places I can't even touch. Hmph, at this rate, it'll take years before Mr. Wright calls me his partner."

She looked disappointed in her lack of skills. Apollo never liked seeing her like this, so he said something to cheer her up.

"Well, for the meanwhile, you're my partner."

"Hm?"

She stayed motionless for a moment before tilting her head to Apollo, presenting him the most quizzical face he's ever seen. He thought over what he had just said and he instantly began explaining.

Nervously, he said, "Erm, what I mean is that we're partners to each other. You sometimes have a hard time keeping a chin up in court and I have my moments of doubt in our client. Together, we can be just as good, if not better, than Mr. Wright!"

"..."

She didn't say anything. She looked as if she was deep in thought, questioning if Apollo's logic made sense. It made him uncomfortable. Relief came when she finally spoke up.

"You know, Apollo, you're right! The two of us make a great team!"

Her approval made him smile.

"With the two of us together, the truth will always come out!"

"That's right!" he cheerfully said.

With high spirits in the air, they both cleaned up the office a bit and headed for the door.

Apollo turned off the lights and locked the door.

"Hm, since I have the keys, I'll have to come as early as Mr. Wright. Athena, do you know what time he comes to the office?"

"Right after he walks Trucy to school," she said, "so come around at seven."

"Thanks."

They walked besides each other to the elevator and entered.

Apollo pushed the "1" button and the doors closed. The elevator began its descent.

"Um, Apollo?"

"Yes?"

Athena was back to looking worried. Apollo wasn't sure what caused it, but he was sure he was the blame.

"Do you think... you could lend me your journal?"

The reality was less worse than he expected a small breath of relief escaped.

"Sure, but can I ask why?"

Athena was already avoiding eye contact with him and further avoided it by turning her head the most she could.

She knew he would be able to tell, but she said it anyway.

"I wanted to see what you wrote for 'The case of the one who flew out the nest'."

Just as she thought, he immediately caught her lie.

"Your hands tightened when you said 'The case of...something'."

Looking at her, she looked a bit ashamed of herself for giving such an obvious lie, to Apollo of all people.

Apollo wasn't happy to be lied to, but he quickly realized Athena must have lied to indirectly ask about _that_ case.

"It's okay," he said.

"Huh?"

She looked at him and then his notebook in hand.

"You do know what I'm asking for, right?"

Apollo nodded and continued offering his notes.

"Clay's murder was hard on me, but it also helped me understand that I can trust you no matter what. I'm sorry I ever thought you-"

"It's okay." She took his notebook from him and smiled. "Thank you, Apollo."

The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

Apollo stepped out first. He took a second and third step and stopped on the fourth when he heard a yelp.

"Uwahh!"

"Athena?!"

He quickly turned around to see what was happening. His concern was awarded with Athena falling onto him, after she tripped coming out of the elevators.

"Gyaagh!"

They toppled down to the floor, descending farther than they expected the elevator to take them to.

"Apollo?"

"Athena?"

They eyes were closed from natural response. They slowly opened them on the sound of their name being said, however, and they consequently found each other through reflected eyes.

Slowly, but surely, each of their senses began returning.

They started off looking into the gleam of the other's eyes. Athena quickly noted his strong, pursuing eyes and Apollo found himself charmed by her blue eyes.

They then realized what they were doing and simultaneously avoided eye contact. Being that their faces were so close together, they didn't have much to look at. They both lowered their view and saw their mouths close together. Seeing their lips so close together, their brains started processing the feelings their lips were experiencing: The small, light breath of Justice and Cykes, mixing together and being exchanged between the two. Some of it even reached their nose. It was pleasant, to say the least, but it was the source of the smell that made it amazing.

Naturally, air entered through the throat and into the lungs. Inside of their chests, they felt like they could sense their breaths dancing and swirling in there. The warm feelings quickly permeated throughout their body and now the world was starting to seem insignificant.

Athena had dropped their books and her hands landed on his his shoulders. Apollo, in the half second he had to react to her falling, tried to catch her. He failed to do so and now his hands were holding onto her lower back.

The only movements their bodies made was the expansion and depression on their chests and some shifting. Overall, they were small, insignificant movements. To them, however, the closeness and warmth they felt from each other maximized their senses and they could feel every little thing move.

Eventually, their heads fully processed what was going on and their eyes looked back at each other. Without speaking, they both asked each other why neither of them were moving away from each other. Simply put, they found no reason to get away from this heated moment.

Fortunately, one of the building's tenants gave them the reason to get away from each other.

"Hey, you two! Knock it off or I'm calling the police! The hotel is next door, if that's what you think this place is!"

The voice was painful and hard to listen to. That alone broke the moment and the two got up.

"I'll be taking the bus," Apollo declared.

"I'll be taking the cab," Athena said in turn.

The nervousness and fear in each other's voice and face was clear as daylight, even if they both poorly disguised it by putting a hand over their face.

They simply wanted to get away from each other.

They both went to sleep in their respective homes as fast as they could, trying to get away from their thoughts. They both failed at shutting out forbidden thoughts out of their heads. Sleep was their only hope now, to become unconscious and leave their thoughts behind.

They were already more than coworkers to each other, but never did they expect this. Were their minds naturally responding to their physical bonding, or were the gears of their relationship finally turning?

They would find out the answer the very next day.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Eh. Hm. Well... Mrn. I just don't...

Welp! I'm not sure how it happened, but it happened! This series, of all things, gave me something worth shipping. Juniper/Apollo aren't close enough for me to accept, and Athena/Blackquill are, uh, I don't know. I just don't like it that much. This, however, appealed to me and makes the most sense.

I debated for a few days on writing something like this. As you'll see from my other works, I just do a lot of lame humor. It is in my humble opinion, however, that a writer must never be afraid to go into different genres and that a writer must write a good story wherever it may come from. This means, if I feel like a flying baby being chased by wolves who eat it at the end sounds like a good story, I will write it. (I don't think that sounds like a good story, so I'm never writing that.) Never be afraid to write in a different genre, people!

With that being said, I saw a fanart of these two and the story practically wrote itself, minus the part where I actually write. This was going to be like a 20-chapter thing, but looking at this now though, I feel like it would be okay to just leave this as another one-shot. I don't know. I'll leave the reviews to decide. The fact I wrote something different from the usual was rewarding itself, so I'll be content if anybody else wants this left as a stand-alone. Of course, criticism is always a nice thing.


	2. Chapter 2

"Apollo, where have you been? I've been standing here half an hour now."

The head of the office, Phoenix Wright, was standing in front of the office door. He had just gotten back from walking Trucy to school and expected Apollo to have come and unlock the door.

Apollo, standing in front of his boss, had his head down. He had just arrived here after going through the most obscure route possible to get to the office.

"Are you all right? I hope you're not ignoring me."

Apollo gave a yawn as loud as his voice. "I'm fine. I just didn't have a good night's rest, that's all."

"I knew I should have asked Trucy to slip that journal out of your hands. Nothing good ever happens when you write about yourself."

"That's not it," Apollo said, although it was half the reason he was sleep deprived. The other reason was because, "I tried sleeping, but I kept remembering this horrible accident that happened to me on the way back to my apartment.'

His eyes shifted and his shoulders lowered. In a concerned voice, Phoenix asked, "What happened?"

This was a critical moment, but Apollo was far too tired to notice. If he told him about what happened with Athena, things would become awkward for a while in the office. If he lied, Phoenix would use his magatama and take the truth out of him by force.

Fortune, as luck would have it, Apollo gave an acceptable answer inadvertently, trying to keep the answer simple.

"I fell."

"Ah."

Phoenix looked annoyed for thinking it was serious. He quickly got over it though and asked Apollo for the key.

"Here you go, Mr. Wright."

"...this is a fork, Apollo."

The sentence alerted Apollo and shocked his body awake. His head shot as he shouted, "What? Are you sure?"

Phoenix tried entering one of the prongs into the keyhole and failed. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" More and more of his grogginess went away as his stress levels piled up. "I must have accidentally given the key to the homeless man outside instead of the fork!"

"You were going to give a homeless man a fork?"

"Look, I'm very tired, okay?! I have to go and hurry!"

With those words, Apollo ran away to retrieve the key back.

…

And then he came back.

"Apollo?"

Apollo came back and took the fork out of Phoenix's hand.

"I'm still going to give him the fork."

This time, Apollo really did go away. He naturally went toward the elevator until his neck twitched and he remembered what happened last night. His body shifted slightly to the right and headed to the stairs instead.

Feelings of regret and stupidity would come to Apollo a few moments after he went down half the stairs. Trying to go up the building was another person trying to avoid the elevator for personal reasons. This person got the same sensation as Apollo upon seeing him.

"Apollo!"

"Athena?"

Looking up at Apollo and hearing his voice, Athena noticed Apollo was a bit confused.

Looking down at Athena and seeing her eyes, Apollo noticed Athena was a bit surprised.

Two different emotions, for two different reasons, from one same source: The incident at the elevator last night.

Six seconds had passed without either of them doing anything. Simultaneously, the two noticed things getting weird and both shouted something odd.

"I have to go fork this over to someone!"

"I have tom eat Mr. Wright!"

After that strange exchange happened, they crossed each other at the stairs and instantly pretended the last minute hadn't happened.

* * *

Each and every word in this part was hand-picked by supermonkeys created in my imagination. The process took so long, I could only come up with two words a day.

In any case, if you Google a combination of "Justice" and "Cykes", this is the first result. It is absolutely bizarre since I haven't uttered the term anywhere on this fic, but I'll take the pride title of "First!".

In addition to the Google discovery (thank you mariogman25 for directing my attention to that) this is my second most requested fanfic I have that people want me to continue. I chose this one over the 40 followers one in a separate account because this one was easier to write.

I've been going through delays and delays since I've been working during the holidays and have been looking for a job after the seasonal one ended. I believe I'm going to get one soon, so I'm writing this while I can. Expect another two short chapters in the coming week or two before I get to the long chapter of something around 5k words.

There is actually a third reason I went back to this, which also ties in to my delays, but I will get to that when the time comes. For now, I hope to update a lot more this year than I did in the last one.


End file.
